Sunday, April 25, 2010

The quest continues...

... so we've been trying to teach Rienzi how to lay down. This is a difficult quest - as Ren is BIG and hard to manuver around. Last summer we wrestled and wrangled her and it was partially successful. It just wasn't a very postive experience. So this time around I went the complete opposite direction - we did a lot of walking around thinking "downward" thoughts.

This resulted in Ren digging lots of holes in the arena...

.. lots of looking at me with her "I don't think so" face...

Notice the carrot I have hiding to try and convience her otherwise. And Ren earns lots of treats if she offers downward thoughts - which includes kneeling.

Nom Nom Nom!

Now if only I could figure out how to get that big ol' rump of hers to go down, we'll be all set!

Here's Ren offering a kneel without a halter, and minimal use of the rope.

So... all of this is a lot for Ren to process, so she sits around and yawns quite a bit during these sessions which is pretty funny.

Any bets on when she'll finally figure out how to go all the way down when I ask?